Thursday, October 24, 2013

How some people choose to expend energy; on warpath for pseudo-Chief

I’m
not a University of Illinois alumnus, so I always have trouble identifying with
the people who want to view it as a holy crusade, of sorts, to fight for the
image of Chief Illiniwek.

The old stomping grounds of generations of pseudo-Chiefs

My
alma mater’s mascot/honored symbol/whatever label you try to tag it with, was a
student in a Titan costume – and a cheap one at that. It wasn’t something
somebody would get upset over.

YET
TO THIS day, there are people who want to view it as a travesty that the university
did away with the image of a white student doing what was supposed to be a
sacred native dance while wearing a tribal costume that was supposed to be
distinctly authentic to the tribes native to what is now Illinois.

Of
course, the matter that was bringing out all this imagery? The notion that the
Fighting Illini sports teams might get their butts kicked a little less
viciously than they usually do.

In
all, not exactly something that the real natives would have ever used such
sacred imagery for. Which is the point that the non-Indian tribal people always
miss when they try to defend such things as Chief Wahoo in Cleveland or the
Washington Redskins football team!

The
distortion of native images is so laughable. It is more ridiculous than the
distortion that occurred when the hippy-dippy types of the 1960s got themselves
all into the images and cultures of India.

BUT
IN A comical way that no real Indian person would ever do. Just like no real
person whose ethnic origins trace back to the indigenous tribes of this nation
(a fake Indian, because of the fact that Christopher Columbus was not so much a
discoverer of nations, but was lost!) would ever think there was anything real
about Illiniwek.

Which
is what makes their fight seem so trivial.

Ever
since Illiniwek (I actually once met a former Illiniwek back in the days when I
worked at the state Capitol in Springfield – he’s now a corporate executive for
railroad interests) disappeared in 2007, there has been a group calling itself
the Honor the Chief Society.

Chief as long-gone as this melted ice sculpture

They
are a batch of disgruntled student types who want to think the hippy-dippy
types have taken over the world from decent, respectable types like themselves!
Which means they think the rest of the world should shut up and do what they
tell them to do.

THEY
WENT SO far as to try to register the Chief Illiniwek logo for themselves,
claiming the university had abandoned it.

Which
has resulted in lawsuits, legal action and attorneys getting richer and richer –
because the university didn’t want anyone doing something with the logo that
would have reflected negatively on the Urbana-based college.

The
two sides came to an agreement this week that really maintains the status quo.
They can’t create an Indian mascot and call it the New Chief Illiniwek. They
can’t make any merchandise of their own with the Illiniwek logo.

They
can make their own merchandise with the phrase “Honor the Chief.” Although
their website and promotional materials will be required to contain the phrase,
“The Honor the Chief Society is not sponsored, licensed, approved or endorsed
by the University of Illinois.”

IN
SHORT, THE great Illiniwek legal battle resulted in the group being treated
like a pack of cigarettes – they have to have a warning label of sorts to let
you know that something bad exists here.

And
in return for accepting a warning label, the group will get to sell t-shirts
and perhaps a coffee mug or two. Is this really a fight about merchandising?

All
of which I suspect will only be purchased by people more interested in making
conservative ideological statements. While the student body will shrug off the
issue as a whole lot of nonsense about nothing.

Because
the rest of us who attended a college and that type of experience remember the
parties, the pressure of classes, the intellectual rewards and even some of the
ballgames – not the student who wore a funny costume because he wasn’t good
enough to actually play on one of the athletic teams.

I am a Chicago-area freelance writer who has reported on various political and legal beats. I wrote "Hispanic" issues columns for United Press International, observed up close the Statehouse Scene in Springfield, Ill., the Cook County Board in Chicago and municipal government in places like Calumet City, Ill., and Gary, Ind. For a time, I also wrote about agriculture. Trust me when I say the symbolic stench of partisan politics (particularly when directed against people due to their ethnicity) is far nastier than any odor that could come from a farm animal.